New Site Indexes Contracts from SEC Database

A website launched yesterday claims to be the largest freely searchable database of contracts extracted from the SEC’s EDGAR database. Called Law Insider, it says that it has indexed and made searchable more than 250,000 contracts, ranging from business loan agreements to employment agreements to redemption agreements.

Contracts can be searched by contract type, company name, law firm or state, as well as by text. Contracts can also be searched by tags, such as “debt conversion agreement.”

Search is free and no registration is required. The site encourages users to register and create an account. Registered users are able to add their own tags to documents as they search.

The site is the creation of Preston Clark, a San Francisco-based lawyer and business person who writes the eponymous blog, Law Insider. Clark was formerly assistant general counsel for the University of Miami and is listed as the vice president of business development at ThinkHR.com and as the former director of business development for 1800Accountant.com.

Within the SEC database, contracts are generally filed as attachments to forms and filings. The advantage of using a site such as this is that it extracts the contracts and indexes them directly, making it easier to find the specific contract or type of contract you seek.

Thanks for sharing the news about the launch. We’re now updating contracts daily– and will continue to make improvements to the Law Insider search bar in the coming months. The newest feature, as of today, enables search by law firm and executives listed within contracts.